


Connected By a Red String

by c__leigh98



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Ben Solo - Freeform, F/M, General Hux - Freeform, Kylo Ren - Freeform, Kylo ren/reader - Freeform, Leia organa - Freeform, Luke Skywalker - Freeform, Multi, Poe Dameron - Freeform, Princess Leia - Freeform, Rey - Freeform, Star Wars - Freeform, The Dark Side - Freeform, ben solo fan fic, ben solo fanficion, finn - Freeform, kylo ran fan fic, kylo ran fanfic, kylo ren fanfiction, kylo ren x oc - Freeform, star wars fan fic, the light side - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-22 00:45:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6064386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c__leigh98/pseuds/c__leigh98
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aria Skyes is a respectable woman who is not a Jedi, but is still able to understand and feel the Force that had been within herself as she learned and observed those that were being trained under Luke Skywalker. She is a great help to Leia Organa as she had become part of the Resistance at a young age, not really knowing where she had come from or who she came from. Her relationship with Leia and Han Solo's son, Ben Solo now Kylo Ren, is a rough one with many twists and turns. Although the hardships come along and make her loose hope, the red string attached to her pinky gives her back strength and determination.</p><p>(Throughout the story, it is told like a stream of consciousness)</p><p>New Chapters will up every Friday at the earliest, Saturdays at the latest.</p><p> </p><p>Update:For those who have read this and noticed that the title has changed, I changed it because idk it sounds a lot better than what I had going before lol.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Mission

I couldn’t remember the last time that I had ever been on a mission in all the years that I have been with the Resistance. I could hardly even remember my first mission I was assigned on. It wasn’t the fact that I had wanted to be on a mission, it was just that I haven’t had enough adventures. I love being by General Leia’s side, but there were days where I wished that I could escape the work loads that were piled as tall as Chewbacca slouching. However, I had to remind myself that she had just lost her husband.  
A strong woman she is. And so inspiring in my eyes that I never regret being with her.  
“General Organa?” I called to her from the other side of her quarters. I heard footsteps shuffling on the other side and was now faced with the woman that I had always considered as a mother. I never really knew my real parents, but General Organa was the one who I considered to be the closest person I had to a mother-figure.  
“You wanted to see me Princess Leia?” I smiled as she let me in.  
“Aria,” she started as she closed the door, “you do know that you don’t have to be that formal with me.”  
“It’s still a habit Princ-“ she cocked an eyebrow at me as she went to her desk, “I mean…General Organa.”  
“That’s a lot better,” she chuckled as she motioned me to sit on the opposite side of her chair, “How are you doing? I hope you’re still not upset about not being able to go with Rey to see Luke.”  
I simply shook my head as a smile came across my face.

Rey was a new addition, in a way, to the Resistance and was someone who I also admired; even though it was only for a short period of time. It was an enjoyable time with her even though most of it was honestly just talking about other things that weren’t really war related. The Force I had felt through her really showed true light the more I had gotten to talk to her. I know that I am not a Jedi, but I have been taught the ways of the Force and can understand in a way that wouldn’t make sense to anybody else. However, I didn’t want to learn how to properly use the power that I had no idea I had possessed in the first place.  
To be real, I actually just wanted to see Master Luke after such a long time.  
But, I knew where my duties and priorities lie. My attention was mostly centered at the base and was to tend to all the injured from the previous battle and General Organa.

“Don’t worry about me, General. I know where my duties lie, and Rey knew where her duties lie. And my duty is to follow your orders,” I said as I pat her hands lightly. “I will always do what I am told.”  
Her expression slightly fell and it surprised me even though I did not react to her faltering smile. “Yes,” she sighed, “If I only had a daughter like you, Aria.”  
“Ah, I-I don’t think you would want one like me…with all respect General,” I said flustered, “I think that I’d bring you down on your reputation.”  
“Nonsense Aria. What would a reputation have to do with anything?”  
“I’m sorry…I just don’t feel like I do anything too major for you to praise me like that.”  
“Someone who can hold herself up and can do what she needs to do without any questions? How could I not praise you?  
“But there is nothing special about me.” I smiled while shaking my head.  
“Did you forget that the Force is with you?” she chuckled softly, making my expression soften a bit.  
“No, General. But I don’t know how to use it.”  
“Do you ever think about training alongside Rey with my brother?”  
“The only thing I think about are my duties here, General.”  
“But do you not want to learn?”  
“I-I do…but I am just-“  
“Conflicted?”  
I sighed and General pat my back with comfort. It was not like I didn’t want to be able to use the Force at all; I am just simply afraid of it. Leia and Rey were actually the only ones who I told that I had this power within me somehow…with the exception of one person.  
“You always have followed your duties well, I must admit,” her smile was barely to her cheeks as she stood up from her chair and was standing in front of me. I thought that I had to stand up too, but she gave me a gesture to stay seated as she leaned back on her work desk.  
“And with that,” she started, “will you be able to follow this order that I am going to give you?  
Tilting my head to the side in confusion, General Organa’s hand reached for her pocket and pulled out a small, silver pendant and handed it to me. It was beautifully created and it was also surprisingly very light as it sat in the palm of my hand. There was something familiar about this pendant even though this was the first time that I had seen it, but I couldn’t really pinpoint it. “What do you need me to do General?” I asked while looking at the pendant.  
“It is something…that I believe that only you can do.” She paused for a while as she gently put her hand on my cheek. “However, if you choose to not do this, I will not blame you at all for doing so.”  
“I can never—well I can’t really say no to you either way. But, what is this order?”  
As she took a deep breathe, her eyes looked deeply into mine and behind it was what seemed to be a glimmer of….hope?

“I need you to find Ben and bring him back to his senses so he can finally come home.”

My eyes stared blankly at the General as I froze in my place. My voice was caught in my throat, and I wasn’t able to form any words or sentences correctly. My mind went back and forth to all the memories of the past that I had created with him ever since we had met.  
Ben Solo, to me, was a somewhat childhood friend of mine that I cared very deeply about. Back then, when he was sent to go train with his uncle Luke, I would sneak away to go visit Ben and Luke. But then at some point, I was asked to stay to treat the rest of the Jedi that were training because his uncle had caught me tending to Ben’s wounds one day, and was impressed with my work. I remembered that Ben would always let me practice with him whenever I was bored, waiting for the injured students to come in at the medical station. He would teach me all of the things that he had learned and I remembered that one time that he lectured me for so long that it felt like 1000 years. I remembered how much I enjoyed laying down on an empty field and just talking until Luke would drag him away and send me back to the medical area. I remembered how much I had actually loved him.  
But now, he was no longer Ben Solo.  
He was now Kylo Ren. The one who had slaughtered all of the Jedi.  
Leia took my hand and closed it with the cold pendant still sitting inside my palm. “I need you to be the one who can become his light at the end of the tunnel Kira.”  
“G-General…” I finally let out the breath that I didn’t know that I was holding.  
“Aria, I know that I what I am order—no…asking you I believe is something that you can only do. I can only trust you to go through with this. I need you to finish what Han had tried his best to do and bring Ben back home.  
“General,” I cried softly, clutching the pendant in my hand as I stood up abruptly, “what makes you think that I can bring Ben back to the Light side…I don’t have the guts that Han had! I’m not like Han or you!”  
“Aria…you really don’t know mow much potential you have.” She shook her head and held my hands tightly as she had me sitting down again. Her hands felt warm and reassuring. “If I could go and do it, I would go with you or better yet, I would’ve done it by now. I can only send you because there is a guarantee that he will not listen to me. You weren’t the one who sent him away, dear. Better yet…you were with him up until that one day.” She saw my eyes wavering and she continued.  
“The Force is incredibly strong within you whether you know it or not. You are physically and mentally strong, you are smart, and I can go on until I die on how outstanding your abilities are. But, I believe that you can get through everything that is trying to hold you back. You are the person that I believe that will not betray us, the Light Side, and your own heart.”  
Looking deeply into her eyes, she smiled softly like any mother would look at her child.  
“B-But…what if..”  
“Shhhh…” she comforted me and stroked my hair softly like the child I was being at the moment. “You can do it.”  
Taking a deep breath, I looked down at the pendant and finally realized that this was something that Ben had given me on one of the days that I had a small break from the medical station during his training days. A new sense of determination had taken over me as I clutched the precious pendant and stood up in front of my General, giving a salute.

“So,General? When do I leave?”  
—————  
I was packing my equipment and sources that were necessary for this mission, but I wasn’t so sure on how long I was going to be away for considering the fact that I really have no idea where Kylo was right now. But I knew that I was going to have to let myself make those decisions for myself. And just honestly hope for the best. As much as I tried, I wasn’t able to keep my fear stricken face away for long every time his name ran across my mind.  
‘You’ll be fine Aria,’ I told myself as I finished up my packing, ‘everything will be fine. You’ll be okay. You are not going to die. Just have some goddamn faith in yourself.’  
As I was about to zip up everything, when I heard a quick tap at my door.  
“Come in.” I responded as I struggled to finally zip up my bag.  
“You want some help with that Aria? You’re really struggling.” A familiar male voice spoke. Turning my head slightly int he direction of the voice, I chuckled at the leaning figure on the doorway.  
“I’m alright Finn, but thanks anyways.” I said with a smile before I completely zipped up my bag. “How’re you feeling? Did you need something from me?”  
“Ah, better than ever. And not really,” he said as he walked inside completely and closed the door behind him, “but I would like to know about where the hell you’re going.”  
“Aha, well as much as I’d like to tell you. I can't since this is classified information.”  
“Classified? Well that’s new…hiding something?”  
“Look,” I chuckled, “if you really wanna know, go get permission from General Organa first before you can ask me about where the hell I am going.”  
“I already did though,” he chuckled before turning slightly serious, “I really did though Aria.”  
“You are such a nosy human being,” I sighed as I got up and walked over to my own dresser and pulled out the pendant carefully.

Now, when things came to Finn, me and him are pretty playful. And by playful, I guess you an say we’re as playful as two siblings. He’s protective just like every other male towards me in the whole Resistance, but I was little more comfortable with him rather than the other guys; with the exception of Poe, but that’s a different story. He was always concerned for my well-being and told me that he owes me his life since I was the one who had basically nursed him back to health. In other words, I could trust him.

“Just promise me that you won’t freak out or nothing alright? And keep your voice down too..I don’t need the whole base coming over into my quarters because of your megaphone for a mouth.” I teased.  
“Aha, very funny Aria. But please stop stalling,” he sat on my desk, “Where the hell are you going?”  I took a deep breathe before going into the pocket of my robes, pulling out a small memory drive and shook it in front of him. “This is a memory drive. The same kind of memory drive that you found in BB-8 that was the missing piece of Luke Skywalker’s coordinates.”  
“What? So she is going to send you to Rey and Luke cause if you’re going you better ta-,” Finn almost exclaimed and I had to shush him quickly, “Oh, right sorry.”  
I shook my head and continued, “No I’m not going to where Rey and Luke are.”  
“Then where?”  
“I’m going to look for…Kylo Ren…”  
It was silent for a few minutes before Finn started to give me a hard glare as his eyes wavered back and forth between the memory drive and me. Finn doesn’t know about my relations with Kylo; in fact no one except for Leia did, honestly. And by judging how his face was now, I don’t think he really likes to remember the guy that had practically almost killed him during his first battle against the Vader obsessed individual.  
“And why is it that you are looking for that crazy son of a gun?” I was already getting the hint that Finn was probably about to head into Organa’s quarter’s right and probably find some way to come with me on this trip or to stop me from going all together. And if I know Finn from since I had met him, I know how much f a fight he’ll put up to just get on board with me. But, I guess it was better late than never to tell Finn everything. But things are interrupted when General Organa walked in with a calm demeanor.  
“I’m guessing that he’s asking for reasons?” She said calmly.  
“Oh hell I am,” he let out a frustrated sigh. “General? Are you crazy?! Sending Aria to search for that-that…dangerous guy is probably one of the craziest things I have ever heard ever since I was here!”  
“Finn..please calm down,” I said, “General Organa and I have own good reasons for going and it would be best if you didn’t try to meddle with them.”  
“How can I calm down,” Finn exclaimed, “what if you don’t come back in one piece?! Or-Or at least alive?!”  
“Finn, I am not a child and I can talk care of myself,” I mentally face palmed and the General had pat Finn’s arm as a way for him to cal down a bit. “Finn,” she started, “this is truly something that I know that Aria can handle. Trust me, she wasn't happy about it at first either but she was still willing to go through it.”  
“So tell me this then,” he got up from the desk and stood up straight, “why can’t you send anyone else? Better yet a whole search team? Wouldn’t that make things easier and safer?”  
“For one thing,” General spoke up, “putting everyone in danger as a group is just as much trouble as going solo.” She stared into Finn’s eyes as he slowly started to soften up his expression and his voice. “Also Finn…I need both Aria and my son to be alive and well by the time they get back from who knows how long.”  
I sighed as Finn looked down at the floor and rubbed the back of his head with slight frustration before letting out a deep sigh. There were really no words I could say to him that would make him better and I knew that probably talking right now would just upset Finn even more. Finn really did see me as his sister that he needed to protect at all times, and I had to remember and understand that Finn never had a family to start out with. I know that I feel nervous about going after Kylo by myself, but I knew that I had to do it from the bottom of my heart; even if it meant that I had to loose my life while trying to do this.

“Alright…I get it and I understand your duty Aria,” Finn sighed with what seemed to be a sigh of relief, “but, what is your relationship with that crazy commander anyways?”  
I stood in my place quietly as I tried to figure out how I could tell him my relationship without getting a bad idea in his head. “He…was a childhood friend of mine, in a way.”  
“I see…well,” he got up from his place and took my bag, heading towards the door, “you better come back here safe and in one piece then. If you happen to bring that guy back, you better make him apologize to me for almost splitting me in half.” I smiled and nodded as Finn left the room to out my bag inside the ship that I was taking with me.  
“Well, that was little bit more better than expected,” I said, “General?”  
General Organa looked at me with a smile as she placed her hand on my shoulder, “Thank you, Aria. I don’t know what else to say but thank you and how grateful I am that this will actually be taken into action.” I smiled myself and nodded as I repeated the same words that I have told ever since then.

“It is my duty and honor, General Organa.”

With that I was off into to search of the man that had been gone from home for way too long.


	2. Discovery

It had already been a few weeks since I had started my search for Kylo. There were so many places that I thought that aI could have possibly seen him in, but so far I have been coming up short. After all that had happened between the First Order, the Resistance and with his defeat from Rey, there was really no telling on where I’d be able to find this dark and frightening man training for the next time that he would possibly confront Rey and the Resistance. As scary as that thought is, I need to go back to focusing on what my main objective is.  
And it was to bring this son of a bitch home. My apologies to General Organa who is definitely not a bitch.  
I had stopped by a forest looking kind of area that was already reminding of the Resistance base. I didn’t realize how much I had already missed being back at the base, but I knew that I was here for a reason. I grabbed my small pouch and water canteen quickly before I started to look for some sort of water source so I can get my fill of the liquid goodness and set up my camp for the day. So far, there really wasn't anything that seemed to lead any traces to where he could possibly be, but then again who would leave their trace behind?   
After finding clean water, I had decided to make a small fire so I was able to stay warm for the night. I searched high and low for useable branches, twigs and so on. As I gathered some moss, I didn't realize how deep into the forest I was in. It wasn't until I just heard the wind and what seemed to be subtle whispers. This worried me a lot because I knew that there was the possibility of running into the First Order, and I knew that I didn't want that to happen just yet. But as usual, my curiosity got the best of me and I started to walk towards the voices. They gradually got louder as I went deeper into the forest and surrounded me like a pack of wild animals surrounding their prey.   
Suddenly, my foot accidentally kicked something hard on the ground making me curse under my breath from the pain. I knelt down to pick up a piece of moss that I had dropped. And when I grabbed the moss, I felt something cold brush against my hand making me jump back a bit in surprise. I blinked and stared at the moss piled spot wondering what in the hell I just touched. As I knelt down the voices from earlier suddenly came to a complete stop as I pushed the moss away. Looking down, I sat in place as I picked up what I had dug from the ground.   
It was a lightsaber.   
I picked it up slowly before all these flashbacks from apparently my past suddenly came to view. I gasped as Kylo- well actually Ben- came into view. It was from when we were a bit younger and we were playing with the lightsaber for the first time. And then there was a boy who looked a little bit like me, but just a year. I was so confused since I had never seen that boy in my whole life, but time had quickly moved forward to the time me and Ben were lying down next to each other under the stars and talking about everything that was on our minds at that moment. And I had heard him speaking as I walked closer to this version of us. It was a few days before my birthday…  
“Hey Ben,” I had said as I rolled next to him, “Would you tell me what you’re thinking right now?”  
“You know,” he glanced at me before looking back at the stars, “you can just read my mind Aria.”  
“Where is the fun in all that? It’s better to just actually use our voices sometimes Ben…”  
“Yeah I guess…” Ben sighed as he gave me his attention, “Okay what is it then?”  
I smiled as I looked at him, “What are you—“  
“I told you that I wasn’t going to tell you already.”

“But I didn't even get to finish my sentence! And why won’t you tell me?!”  
“It’s supposed to be a secret you dork. And don’t even try to read my mind because it won’t be up here.”  
I pouted as I stared at the male who seemed to be pleased in causing me a bunch of confusion. Then he pulled something from his robe and gave it to me. My eyes lit up as he handed me a small, silver pendant.  
My eyes widened as I looked at the silver pendant in my own hand.  
Before I could see what would happen next, an ear piercing scream pulled my attention away from the two young ones. 

The scene had completely changed once I turned around. The trees were burning with a fiery red and the sound of lightsabers clashing in the darkness reminded me of what had happened years ago. A familiar scream reached my ears, making me run towards it, only to have a drop of a warm substance graze my cheek. A dark figure hovered over what seemed to be a lifeless corpse in a tattered robe. The lightsaber off and on the ground next to it’s owner. Looking at the dark figure, my eyes widened as the whole front of the figure was visible.   
“Ben…!”  
My head turned around to see me again with slightly tattered clothing and a few wounds.  
“Aria…what are you doing here?”  
A robotic voice spoke as he passed by me as if he never saw me. His lightsaber off and helmet off as he looked at my shaken figure.  
“What are you doing here?” His voice sounded calm, but I could tell that he was anxious.  
“What are you doing! H-How can you do this t-to everyone!” I exclaimed and he quickly clamped my mouth shut as two knights came out from both sides. They motioned to me, but Ben’s hand stopped them as he put his helmet back on.  
“I’ll take care of her. There are still a few more naive Jedi in the area. Eliminate them immediately.”  
“Yes, Kylo Ren.” The two of the solders briskly walked away leaving me and Ben—well I guess Kylo Ren— alone in the dark and chaotic forest.  
“Aria, you have to run.”  
“N-no…! I can’t..not without you…Ben don’t do this…” I cried into his chest and I could feel his hesitation to touch me.  
“My name is Kylo Ren…” he started, “if you can’t go, then come with me…”  
“To the dark side?! Are you crazy! I can never do that!”  
“Then run!” He scolded as his helmet came off again and fell to the ground. I felt his hands cup my cheeks in desperation to look at him, feeling the last drop of emotions that he was going to show to me. The tears rolled down as he quickly brought his lips down onto my own before pushing my away quickly and taking out his lightsaber.  
“Scream.” His arm was raised and was about to come down. And as he said, I screamed the loudest I have ever screamed in my entire life.  
I braced myself for the end of my life to finally occur, but it never happened. Instead, I just heard the trunk of the tree behind me collapse, causing a bigger with the one it came into contact with. The knights came by and Ben just waved them off as if to say that I was finished, not knowing that I was crouching in a fetal position behind his tall and dark figure. The other knights spotted two Jedi running away and were quick to capture them. Ben knelt down and cupped my cheeks again, a softly placed a kiss on my lips before pulling away again.  
“Make sure you stay out of sight. I know that they thought that I may have killed you, but if you get caught, the both of us are dead. You understand?” With that he picked up his helmet and put it on as he stood up from my position. I stood up as well fighting every ounce I had to tell him to stop, but I couldn’t risk getting the chance to be killed again.   
“I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again Kira…but with these last emotions I’ll let you know something,” his robotic voice sounded cold, but I knew that his words were warm.  
“I love you.” And with that, we had gone our separate ways, and I didn’t know who was hurting more.  
I was brought back into the present as I stared at the lightsaber that was in my hand, dropping it to the ground. Leaning against the tree, the sweat and tears that I didn’t know I was shedding were being pushed away but my shaky and dirty hands. Sobbing as loud as I could, I remembered all of the horrible things that had happened faster than hyper speed. The emotions were taking over me and I couldn’t move from my place for hours.   
—————  
When it looked like the sun was about to set, I had finally gotten up from the ground and brought back all the things that I needed for the fire. I had latched the lightsaber somehow to my belt as I walked back to the safety of my camp. The sun had then finally set and I was curled up by the fire, staring blankly at the lightsaber that I had just found. I was able to fix it up a bit with some of the tools I had brought along with me for the journey and it ended up looking as good as new. It was still working, which was somewhat a good thing, but I just quickly turned it off.  
“What the hell was all of that,” I said to myself as I continued to examine it, “why did all of my memories come to me like that. It’s been a while since I’ve even thought about them.” I have never really used a lightsaber, so my knowledge is really limited on what I needed to know. Rey had told me that the same thing had happened to her when she wielded Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber and now she’s probably training really hard with Luke on who knows where.   
“Maybe I really am being called to be a Jedi or something.” I sighed as I put the lightsaber into my spare bag and lied down next to the fire in order to keep myself warm for the night. I figured that sleep would be a good thing for me to do since I my mind was really going out of this galaxy.

The next morning, I had gotten up and quickly took all of my things and put out the fire so I wouldn’t be tracked down by any enemies I wouldn’t like to see.  
My search for Kylo continued as I looked deeper into the forest, hoping that I would be able to find some sort of evidence that could lead me to where Kylo was training. I would think that Snoke would want him back with him to do the training, but I truly believed that Kylo would refuse to do such a thing. He had used to do it often when he trained with his uncle, but I wasn’t sure if he really would continue trainmen like that.  
I had somehow ended up at this ruin looking place, or well what seemed to be left of it. There was just a lot of jagged rocks an rubble that were lying all over the place, and it really looked like there was no one around. This would have probably been the 5th plant that I have been to that doesn’t have anyone or anything to have me track down Kylo.  
“You would think that I would have some sort of lead by now. But I just don’t have anything.” I sighed, sitting on top of one of the rocks.  
“You don’t have anything for what?” A voice popped out of nowhere and caused me to jump up from where I was as I frantically started to look around me.  
“W-Who said that!” I exclaimed, taking out a blaster that General Organa had given me.  
“W-Whoa, whoa! Put that thing down! You’re gonna hurt somebody with that.” Looking closely, I had realized that it was a man. A lean guy and wearing a technician’s uniform, he stared at me with a worrisome expression and his hands up in defense. In all honesty, he looked fairly harmless and was in a way very good looking. I lowered my gun slowly before putting it back onto my belt as I walked towards the technician.   
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" I asked as I got closer to him.   
"M-My name really doesn't matter, but I lost my way to my aircraft." He responded.  
I raised my eyebrow in suspicion, but just shrugged it off. "Well, good luck with that then." I waved to him as I continued to walk. Hearing feet shuffling on the ground, I turned around to see the technician behind me.   
"I-I'm sorry...but could you tell me your name?" The technician asked.   
"Why should I tell you my name if you won't tell me yours?" I said as I continued to walk, the technician following behind.  
"Well...It's just that you look like someone that I know, so I wanted to know your name."  
Staring at the technician, I contemplated on whether or not I should say anything. He didn't look anyone that I have known since I don't know many technicians in the first place. But maybe a past friend I may have forgotten about could be a suggestion.   
“Aria. Aria Skyes. ” I said as I continued to walk away from the technician. I didn't hear the weird technician follow me anymore when I suddenly stopped. My eyes widened as I turned around and ran back to the technician who was still standing in the same place he was standing in. He looked surprised as he saw me coming closer.   
"You said that you were looking for your shuttle?" I asked while he nodded, "Where were you heading to?"  
He shrugged, "I don't really know. We stop where we stop. The commander doesn't really tell us about things like that, so..."   
"Is there anyone else here with you?"  
"Um...yes actually. It's my boss. I lost track of where he went and he's the one who really remembers how to get back to the shuttle so I can get back on the ship soon."  
"I'll go with you then."  
"Re-Really?"  
"I need to find something and maybe your boss might have the answers to questions I'll be looking for."  
"That's great! Thank you so much Ms. Skyes!"   
And with that, I found out that his name was Kurtis as we went through the forest again.   
—————  
For hours, we tried to retrace all of Kurtis’ steps before he separated from his boss. We seemed to be getting more acquainted with each other since Kurtis started talking more about himself, and didn't seem to be so threatened by me anymore since I put my blaster inside my bag. He told me all about how he started out and how much he liked being a technician for the ship he was on. Kurtis seemed like a really harmless guy since he seemed to geek out about all the different types of wiring and other things that I couldn’t really understand; like I said, I don’t know that many technicians, let alone ships.   
As we got closer to a few tall figures, I had stopped in my tracks as I recognized two storm troopers talking to someone, which was probably Kurtis’ boss. Luckily, Kurtis doesn’t know that I have anything to do with the Resistance since I played it smart to leave anything “Resistance-looking” to make me a dead giveaway. As I walked closely behind Kurtis , I was relieved that I look very suspicious to everyone else that was in the area. The storm troopers had walked away leaving Kurtis’ boss alone, and me an opportunity to ask some questions.  
“Hey boss! I’m glad I found you!” Kurtis exclaimed and his boss just shook his head.  
“You moron! I lost my best technician for the past 4 hours!” His boss smacked Kurtis in the back of the head, before looking at me. “Well whose this lovely lady?”  
“Oh, um…My name is Aria Skyes. I was hoping that you can help me with something sir?” I asked politely.  
“Sure,” he smiled as we walked to the side, “I’ll be back in a bit, I just need to put this runt into his post before he wander off lost again.”  
“But I was following you!” Kurtis complained as he was being dragged away by his boss, but giving me a boyish smile.  
I couldn’t help but smile at the humor. It reminded me so much about the times where I would be dragged away by Luke whenever he told me that I needed to go rest and other things, just so I would stop distracting the other Jedi and sometimes Ben.

As I watched Kurtis being scolded by his boss, a strange feeling had come over me. I couldn’t understand exactly what it was, but it was as if I had suddenly gotten bad vibes from where I was. As if where I was didn’t make me safe anymore, or something like that. I was too afraid to even look around to see what was making me feel this way, but I was brought away from that when Kurtis’ boss had tapped me on the shoulder and lead me to the part of the forest where there wasn’t someone to butt in or eavesdrop into the conversation.  
“So whatcha need Ms. Skyes? Hopefully I can help you out in any way I can.”   
“Well to start things off,” I put my hands in the pockets of my robes, “I was wondering why those storm troopers were here earlier.”  
He chuckled, “Ah, well they were checking the perimeters and reassured me and my men to let them know if anything strange was to happen.”  
“Oh? Like what exactly,” I asked.  
“Just in case there was anyone of a threat to The First Order that’s all.”   
I swear that I had just felt my heart leap out of my chest for a split second as the bad feeling started to over take me again. ‘The First Order…was on this planet?’ I thought to myself, ‘And for what purpose?’  
“If you don’t mind me asking sir,” I started, “What is your reason for being on this planet?”  
“Ah, I guess you live here huh Ms. Skyes?” He chuckled as I tried to smile and go along with it, “Well, the general and commander of our ship were in need of some rest stop along the way. The general is inside the ship while our commander…well he’s God knows where. He isolated himself for a while and said that he was going to be back soon, but it feels like I haven’t seen him in decades.”  
I gulped nervously for a bit as I spotted the same storm troopers from the corner of my eye looking towards my direction. “Um sir, what is the name of your…ship?” Kurtis’ boss stared at me for while as if he was analyzing me the same way a droid would. I tried to keep my cool as my hands stayed within my pockets, but that was really hard to do seeing that the storm troopers were walking very slowly in my direction. I was just hoping that he wasn’t going to say—  
“—The Finalizer is the name of our ship Ms. Skyes.” 

Yup…that was the name that I was hoping not to hear.

“Ms. Skyes? Are you alright? You are looking a little…unwell?” Kurtis’ boss looked at me closely making me back away slowly. The storm troopers were growing near and sweat was forming into the palms of my hands. The bad feeling was then starting too swell inside me as I kept silent not knowing how to answer without squeaking like a nervous mouse that’s about to become a cat’s prey.  
“Er, I’m fine…it’s just that…I—uh, I think that I should be going.” I said quickly, while backing away, “Thank you so much for answering questions for me sir. I’ll be on my way now!”   
I was about to make an attempt to get away from the troopers that were coming until I stopped in my tracks when I saw a familiar tall figure emerge from the forest on the other side of where all the workers were working at. Tom’s boss and the storm troopers turned around as well and started to walk away from me. Kurits’ boss nodded to me and I nodded back, still not able to move from where I was. I stared at the tall figure as another male came from the shuttle to go greet them. Something then started to feel like I was being pierced through my heart with a knife the longer I stared at the figure; I was suffocating just looking at whoever they were.   
Slowly, I backed up to make my get away quiet, but I ended up dropping my blaster. Apparently the one I have is very very sensitive since it nearly killed about two of the workers and the tall figure, but the blasts stopped in its place as if they are frozen. All eyes were staring at me as I fumbled to grab my blaster and shove it into my bag. I lifted my head up with a nervous smile as I backed away slowly.  
“I’m really really sorry about that. I guess that it was a really sensitive, so if uh you don’t mind—“ I backed away.  
“Who are you and why are you here?” A storm trooper asked as he had his blaster aimed, along with a few other troopers doing the same like a bunch of dominos falling on top of each other.  
“Aha…funny you should ask that. Um, well…I was only here for questions and nothing else…so if you don’t mind, I’ll just leave you guys to work.”  
“Ms. Skyes?” Kurtis’ boss somehow came back to my side and had his own blaster in his own hand, pointing against my head as he opened my bag. “I was wondering why you looked a little unwell earlier.” I bit my bottom lip and closed my eyes hoping that he wasn’t going to find—  
“A Resistance patch, Ms. Skyes? Coincidental or intentional?”

Well…at least now I remember where I left that patch for my jacket.

Before anything else could happen, I quickly back kicked the blaster out of Kurtis’ boss’ hand and made a run for it. The troopers were quick to follow as I quickly ran away, blasting at some of them as I felt each blast fly past by my body. If that was all it took for me to run even faster, I’d say that that it was a pretty good damn reason to do so. I had finally gotten far enough from the troopers and decided to hide away for a bit to catch my breath from a small pathway where I couldn’t possibly be seen. Clutching the blaster in my hand, I tried to steady my breathing and closed my eyes as my thoughts tried to be stable once again.   
But just when I was about to feel calm, the bad feeling had surfaced again and my eyes flew open when I heard something like a lightsaber near my ear. A large shadow had casted itself over me as I looked up and saw the same tall figure on top of one of the rocks that were hiding me, their red glowing lightsaber sparking against the rock it was leaning against. As an instinct, I rolled out of the way and shot my blaster towards the figure without looking back or even realizing that they had even deflected my attacks. My legs started to finally run, but I somehow managed to trip on a broken branch and fell hard on the ground, losing my blaster in the process into the deep grass. The tall figure had towered me and looked down at me in my most pitiful state, raising the lightsaber and bringing it down. I quickly shut my eyes and held my hand up, prepared to feel the searing pain that was to follow.

However it never happened. 

As my eyes opened again, I saw that the figure looked as if they were—well technically they were—blasted into on the of the small trees. I quickly got on my knees and searched for my blaster under all the moss. Just when I found it, the tall figure had gotten back up and was already in my face when I lifted the blaster up. As I was about to pull the trigger, everything in my body had seemed to be frozen. I could only breathe, but not not move any part of my body. My eyes slowly looked up at the figure, widening when I was finally able to recognize the mask that the person was wearing. The bad feeling in my body didn’t seem so bad anymore, but it was more of a mixture of relief and anxiousness. I had seen the mask before and part of me wanted to say that I couldn’t believe that he was alive.   
But part of me was glad that he was alive.  
A robotic voice spoke to me as he extended his hands towards my head and it felt like a million little needles were digging into my skull.   
“Aria Skyes, one of the Resistance’s most reliable and trustworthy personnel. To what pleasure does a Resistance scum like you want? And to how you found our whereabouts leads to even more questions, especially since you are here by yourself.” The robotic voice sounded intimidating, and I would have be lying if I didn’t say that I wasn't scared at all by this crazy guy in front of me. But I knew that I had nothing to really fear since I knew who was behind that dark helmet.   
The pain slowly subsided as he pulled his hand away from my head. I felt like I was nearly about to pass out as I continued to stare at the dark figure with a gleam of hope shimmering in my eyes. It seemed as if it was able to penetrate the man behind the helmet considering the fact that he had slightly moved away from me.   
"You have seemed to have gotten a lot stronger than you did before Aria. And I have many things that I should probably ask you when you get on board." The robotic voice spoke.  
With the last bit of my confidence I tried to stare into the deep brown eyes that I knew he had.   
"I'm not getting on board."  
All I heard was a deep chuckle of amusement as the troopers piled in again, blaster pointed directed at me. The robot voiced man waved his hand, making the troopers drop their defense a bit before using it again towards my head. My consciousness slowly slipping away.  
"We'll just see about that."   
And then, I slowly submerged into the darkness, not being able to be prepared for what was to happen next.


	3. The Decision

I felt like I was floating in an empty space from the way I was laying. It may have been possible that they just dropped me off in some random area of space, but I was really hoping that that wasn't the case. As I slowly started coming to, my eyesight was slightly blurry as I adjusted to the white light inside the room. Realizing that the white light were actually storm troopers, I had abruptly woke myself up. However there were restraints on my wrists and ankles holding me and was restricting any movement I had attempted to do. It felt the energy was being sucked right out of me as I leaned back into the uncomfortable metal chair(?) knowing that whatever I was doing was just just going to make the restraints tighten.   
The storm troopers have seemed to notice that I had woken up as one of them left the cell while the other headed towards me. The blaster was brought close to my head as I averted my eyes from the seemingly emotionless robot. The best thing that I could do was to just to glare at the reflection of the the mask.  
“Ooh, a glare. Looks like this Resistance scum is so scary.” The storm trooper seemed amused at my antics making me glare at him even harder.  
“You weren’t saying that earlier when I was nearly blasting your head off, Buckethead.” I sneered.  
“Better watch your language Resistance scum, or else I might just have to blast your pretty potty mouth off your face.”  
“Is Resistance scum the only insult you have for me? I’m sort of disappointed in you. I would think that a walking piece of plastic would say something worst.”

In all honesty, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t actually having fun with this. I mean if I was gonna die soon, at least let me get my last few moments to tell off a storm trooper.

As I waited to see what the storm trooper was going to say, the strange feeling within myself had come back. The cell door had opened again and coming in was the storm trooper that left my cell earlier. And he wasn’t alone this time. Behind him was the same tall figure that had taken me as a prisoner; his demeanor and steps were becoming more intimidating the closer he got. The storm troopers stood next to each other and stood tall in front of the intimidating masked figure.   
“Report on the prisoner.” The masked man responded as he walked around me, making me stiff.  
“Sir,” the storm trooper that I was arguing with earlier spoke up, “The prisoner had just woken up, but she has quite the daring attitude and language against us. Typical Resistance scum.” As much as I wanted to respond to that, I decided to bite my tongue as the masked figure stopped right in front of me.   
“Is that all?” The masked figure asked.  
“Yes Commander,” the storm trooper responded.  
“That is all then, dismissed.” With that, both of the storm troopers walked out, leaving me alone with the masked figure. I may be crazy, but it certainly felt like he was giving me an icy glare behind that mask.  
“You truly are amazing and daring as ever, right Aria?” My breathe hitched as I did my best to avert any type of eye contact away from him, but that wasn't really an easy thing to do.   
“What else would you expect…” I responded, “You’ve known me longer than anyone else has.”   
The figure chuckled as he just stared at me. “In all honesty, I didn’t realize that your daring attitude has caused you to almost end your life.” He started to casually pace back in forth in front of me.  
“And what makes you think—“  
“What are you doing here anyways?” The figure interrupted.  
“I—“  
“How did you find me?”  
“It was sheer luck.”  
“What more does the Resistance need to gain from sending one of their best personnel without any back up. It’s absolutely absurd, especially since that this is coming from the Resistance.”  
“Ben, the Resistance has nothing to do with my reason for being here!” The figure had stopped talking and just stared at me with the cold helmet that he was wearing. I gulped as he walked closer to me and stopped right in front of my face. I felt like a huge umbrella was shielding me away from the sun’s warmth and rays, and I was in desperate need in seeing the light inside the cell room that I was in.  
“What did you just call me?” His voice sounded a lot scarier, and I knew that it wasn’t because that he had a distorted robotic voice.  
“W-What?”  
“What. Did. You. Call. Me?” I wasn’t able to read his expression because of the damn helmet, and I knew that I needed to choose my next words carefully unless I really wanted to be killed on the spot.

“I-I…” I stuttered.  
“Theres’s no need to be afraid Aria,” he responded, “I’m not going to hurt you. That’s what’s going on in your mind right now isn’t it?” I mentally gasped realizing that he was reading the thoughts in my head, and this amused him. “Did I guess right Aria?”  
“The name I called you, “ I started, “i-is the name of the man that I have known since we were innocent and naive children. The one who I’ve known to tease me whenever he would get the chance when we were growing up.” I took in a breathe as the emotionless helmet just continued to stare at me. “I called you the name that I know the best, the one that I accept more than the name Kylo Ren. You call yourself Kylo Ren, but once that mask comes off…you are Ben Solo. The son of Princess Leia Organa and Han Solo.”  
Things were silent for a little bit before he stepped back from where his position was, without at least, leaving eye contact. In silence, Kylo reached for the back of his head and a silent hiss resonated in the room, the mask slowly coming off from his head. My breathing was calming down a bit as I saw the long black hair come into view, along with the deep brown eyes, leaving me mesmerized with the calm expression that he had on his face with the helmet in his hand. Dropping it on top of a nearby table, Kylo slowly made his way to me again without saying a word. My eyes had betrayed me as I looked deeply into his own, no words being able to come out from my mouth.

“Aria Skyes. It’s been quite a while. Hasn’t it?” He spoke as he got closer to me.  
“Ben… likewise,” I whispered as he finally came into full view underneath the dim light on the ceiling.  
“That name no longer applies to me,” he sternly announced, “my name is now Kylo Ren.”  
“Of course,” I narrowed my eyes at him, “the one who participated in the Knights of Ren and was the one who had killed all of those that were close to him.”  
“Not all of them.” I gulped knowing that his voice was just getting even more intimidating as he looked at me. He raised his hand and leaned into me again, making me shut my eyes to brace for myself. The pain of a thousand needles pierced through my head again as the energy was starting to drain throughout my whole body. “You came here under my mother’s orders? How foolish that sounds.” He chuckled and the pain intensified. The tears trickled down my cheeks as I felt him going through all of my thoughts, knowing exactly how I was feeling and thinking at the moment. I used to hate it sometimes as well when he would read my mind when he was still training with Luke, but we knew that it was just for fun. And this was all for a whole different reason.   
“Don’t cry,” I felt him come a little closer as I continued to feel the pain piercing through my brain, the light-headedness wanting to take over.  
“Then give me a reason to stop,” I responded. A small smirk appeared on his lips.  
“Then let me know what the Resistance wants.”  
“The Resistance..”I panted, “has nothing to do…with my reason for being…here.”  
“Your lies,” he pulled his hand away from my forehead and continued to hold my cheek, “they are something I do not wish to hear. Especially from you Aria.”  
I shook my head, “I’m not lying…The Resistance has no communication with me at all.”  
His hand slipped away from my cheek as he took a step back to look at me, sensing the fear that I was probably giving off. Kylo was never really the type to be sadistic, but he really did whatever he could to get what he wanted; and he’s very persistent about getting those things. It was really upsetting that he wouldn’t believe me, but who would if I told them that I had no way of contacting the Resistance. I was giving special orders to not have any communications with the others unless I wanted my head detached from my head. It was really just to show Kylo could trust me, despite the fact that I was fighting on the different side and had no intention of turning over any time soon.  
“You expect me to believe that?”  
“No…” I barely spoke as I looked up at him with a determined look, remembering why I was here in the first place, “But sometimes the truth isn’t always what you want to hear.” Kylo’s lips quickly turned into a straight line as his hand rubbed his chin while he stared me down, causing me to turn away again. If I could think of one thing that he would be planning to do to me, it probably would be on how he would kill me. I had already expected this, but I knew that deep in my heart that it felt like I failed my own mission to try to reason with Kylo.  
Suddenly I felt the restraints on my wrists and ankles release as I braced my self for the contact on the cold steel floor due to the fact that I was still light-headed from the mind-reading. I didn’t even realize how I was leaning towards Kylo in the first place. Instead of the cold floor, I felt a strangely warm and soft body holding me up. My eyes looked up to see Kylo holding me against his broad chest. ‘When was the last time I had any contact like this with him?’ I thought. Kylo reached for his helmet on the table and put it on as two storm troopers walked inside the cell, saying that a “General Hux” wanted to see him.  
“I am guessing that he wants to talk about the girl?” Kylo responded. My hearing and sight was slowly fading since all the energy from my body was drained. I wanted to be awake for a while longer, but I was slowly feeling the fatigue take over me like I was going to die; luckily I wasn’t.  
“Correct Commander, he wanted to know what you were going to do with her.” The storm trooper responded.  
“Tell him that I will meet with him in a few minutes,” with that I felt my body lifted up and was slowly going limp, “I will need this prisoner to be transferred, and I will do it myself before meeting with Hux.”  
The storm troopers had walked out of the cell leaving in a different direction, while Kylo had started to walk the other way with me in his arms and the sound of his feet thumping against the steel floor. The last thing the I had heard was a subtle, yet faint robotic apology.  
—————  
Voices were softly coming through as I started to wake up from another sleep I hadn’t planned on taking on this whole trip. I slowly got up and noticed that I was laying on an unfamiliar bed. My eyes searched the room in the dimmed light darkness as I tried to figure out exactly where I was. It was a little too nice for a prisoner’s cell and I was almost convinced that everything was a stupid dream. That is until the door opened and following inside was Kylo Ren and a storm trooper that was holding something in their hands. I wasn’t tied or restrained in any way on the bed which made me wonder if I had already died and that this was just a replay in mind of how I died. If I really died while I was sleeping, this would truly be a new low for Kylo. Kylo and the trooper stood at the end of the bed as I brought my knees to my face on the other side, not being able to know what they were thinking.  
Then the storm trooper put his gun down and set down, what seemed to be, dark colored robes that looked a lot like what I was wearing right now and left the room. Staring at Kylo, I heard the hissing sound of his mask as he set it down on the bed, staring at me with the same calm expression. My eyes wandered between the robes and him in silence hoping that he would speak up some time soon.  
“Um…” I hummed as I crossed my legs on top of the bed.  
“Change into this,” he bluntly stated as he gently dragged his hand against the fabric.   
“And why should I do that? Im perfectly fine with the clothes I already have on,” I responded back.  
“You will do as exactly as I say and change into this,” Kylo subtly raised an eyebrow as he came around onto one side of the bed, making me flinch slightly and slowly moving away from him. “You will get dressed and the guard outside will lead you to me.” With that, he gave me one last look before walking away with his helmet back on his head. Sighing, I crawled over to the dark robes and examined it with the utmost care. ‘Black, red and even a hint of grey,’ I thought to myself, ‘Wow, the dark side has such an amazing fashion sense.’ I didn’t have much of a choice once I received the “orders” from Kylo unless I wanted to try to be cunning and refuse to wear the attire, but I think living a longer life would be a much better choice.

After slipping on the array of clothing on my body, I went to the mirror on the left side of the bed and stared at myself. The fabric was quite comfortable to say the least, but just looking at what he had made me wear gave the impression that I was some sort of apprentice. I walked outside of the room and spotted the storm trooper that was said to be waiting for me, and is on cue, the trooper immediately turned to me and gave me an order to follow him in a robotic voice. Passing by all the different people that were on, what I now figured out was the Finalizer, I had spotted Kurtis and his boss along the way. Kurtis quickly stood up from what he was doing as I averted my eyes away from him. Kurtis’ boss got distracted with another technician and that gave Kurtis the opportunity to follow me as I continued to follow the trooper in silence.   
For some reason, I was able to feel that Kurtis wanted to talk to me, but I knew for a fact that I didn’t really feel like talking to him at the moment. Besides, it had seemed that Kurtis’ boss had caught him again and pulled him back to work, to my relief. Upon entering the room, there were only a few superior officers and guards on the side as I saw two lean and tall figures talking to each other in hushed tones before looking at my direction. The sound of my boots against the steel ground came to a halt as I stopped in front of the long table inside the room, everyone’s eyes on me. There was a tall man with reddish blonde hair that had his piercing blue eyes staring directly at me. He was about the same height as Kylo as he stood in a very authoritative position.  
“You can all leave,” the red-head ordered without breaking eye contact with me, “I am sure that the Commander would like only for the three of us to have this conversation.”  
“Yes General,” the head storm trooper in the room responded and in a few minutes there was only an intense silence between the remaining bodies in the room. “Ms. Skyes, you can come closer if you’d like. I would hate to speak so loudly in this echo-filled room when I can talk to you normally.” A weird smirk played on his lips making me almost want to roll my eyes.   
“We won’t hurt you so you have nothing to be worried about,” the General responded. Carefully, I made my way to the two on the other side, my boots echoing throughout the room as I came closer. As much as I’d hate to get close, I couldn’t afford any more disobedience if I wanted to be able to go back to the Resistance in one piece.   
“Welcome Aria Skyes. My name is General Hux in case you don’t know who I am,” the red-head responded as he took a step towards me, making me stop in my place. “I see that you are wondering why you’re here, and still alive.”  
“I would like to know that myself as well,” I responded as I looked between Hux and Kylo, “If you think that torture would be a conclusion to any of this, I will let you know now that there is no knowledge that I have that will help you against the Resistance.”   
“Such determination for a woman like you. Your determination truly shows,” General Hux chuckled, “However we are not concerned about the Resistance right now.”  
“Then why keep me alive,” I asked, obviously bewildered.  
“We had a discussion with our supreme leader to give his take on these predicaments,” Hux replied, “my Commander here tells me that he found nothing of the sorts to show that you were lying about your statements, and we did check your belongings to see if there were anything that you could use to communicate with to the Resistance—”  
“And you found nothing.” I responded.  
General Hux looked at me with surprised and smirked a bit, “True, but we did find this.” Hux looked to Kylo who had pulled out a small cylinder object and showed it to me. There was a button on the side and he turned it on, and a green light shot out. ‘The lightsaber,’ I thought in my head, ‘so it’s green.’  
“I was wondering about where and how you found this interesting weapon.” I looked at General Hux as he studied my face. “Commander Ren has told me that you’re no Jedi, so I am very interested myself to know how you found this.”  
I looked to the side and sighed, “I was on the planet that you had been staying at. As you know I just happened to be in your presence, but I had no intention of trying to pull a surprise attack on you.” I heard Hux shuffle from his position to hear more of my story, but Kylo just seemed to just stay in his spot while he examined the lightsaber.  
“You heard it calling to you,” Kylo spoke up as he turned off the saber and looked at me, “am I correct?”  
I gulped and continued to look away as I played with the hem of my robe. “I…heard voices. The voices lead me to the lightsaber.”  
“An interesting case you are,” General Hux stood up and walked back to Kylo’s side.  
“Well,” I finally looked up, “What are you planning to do to me then?”  
“Well, according to our supreme leader’s orders we cannot kill you.” My eyes widened as I stared at the General to make sure that I wasn’t hearing things, “However, we also cannot let you leave our premise.” At that moment, I had fat my heart drop.  
“What do you mean?” I asked, “What are you getting at here?”  
“Supreme Leader Snoke wants you to be trained under me.” Kylo stepped up from his spot and made his way next to Hux’s side. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Glaring at both Kylo and General Hux, I took a step back with my fists balled up tightly.  
“So sorry, but I refuse to work with the Dark Side on this matter.” I replied.  
“Unfortunately of you, it is not something that you have a say in Ms. Skyes.” General Hux responded.  
“Then why don’t you kill me? Wouldn’t it be much easier to do away with me?”  
“That idea is what everyone, but one, had agreed on,” Hux said as he walked to me, “I’m afraid that you don’t have much of a choice Ms. Skyes.”  
“You never gave me much of a choice to begin with,” I muttered under my breath.  
“You don’t realize that you have a power that you can use Aria,” Kylo spoke as he turned on his lightsaber. I refused to give in to the instinct of running away, but my eyes were attracted to the lightsaber that was left on the table. “If you can use that power, just think about all of the things that could happen.”  
“You must not know me,” I said as I started to concentrate on the lightsaber, “But I promised myself that I wouldn’t train as a Jedi or anything else. I never had an intention to use a lightsaber for conduct.”   
“The Force is flowing within you Aria,” Kylo continued to walk behind me, “you can’t fight it no matter what you do.” He stopped right behind me and I could her the static that was coming from his lightsaber. I still was very concentrated on the lightsaber that I had found and wanted to be able to do something to get out of this predicament; so I closed my eyes. “But if you won’t respond to the Force, I will make you respond.” 

Above my head I can hear Kylo’s lightsaber being raised and ready to come down on me, but I opened my eyes and reached my hand out to the one on the table. And as if it was like a magnet, the lightsaber flung it’s way to me, almost hitting Hux, and went straight into my hand. I turned it on quickly and maneuvered myself so I could defend myself from Kylo’s saber as he brought it down. The green light that was contrasted with the red almost felt like a miracle as I was able to prevent my head from being hacked off. I stared at the cold masked male as he didn’t let up a bit from his own defense against me.  
“For someone who says that they don’t want to use the Force, you’re just full of surprises aren’t you?” Kylo smirked as he used the Force to push me away from him. I flew back and ended up on my back with the lightsaber still in my hand, fortunately. Looking up I saw Kylo towering over me with his lightsaber about to strike and I quickly blocked the strike with my saber. It was already obvious that his strength was a lot greater than my own and I wasn’t sure about how much longer I would be able to defend myself.   
“You don’t know the powers that you possess Aria,” Kylo’s robotic voice uttered, “you can be so much stronger. I can teach you in ways that will make you understand your purpose. Don’t fight this Aria!”  
“I will never learn from the Dark Side!” I shouted as I pushed Kylo away from me from some sort of energy that had been released from my hand. The energy I had pushed Kylo all the way to the back of the room that we were in, a big thud resonating within the room and the sound of my panting was echoing. General Hux, who had seemed to just been sitting on one of the chairs in the room this whole time. I stared at Kylo and had a defensive stance in order to be prepared for more of his surprise attacks, but Kylo had already turned off his lightsaber and was walking towards me in a calm manner.   
“Do you not see the power you have now Aria?” Kylo said, “Your power is incredible and yet you have no one to teach you.” He stopped in front of me and this made me turn off the green lightsaber and latched it to a section to the side of my belt.  
“I do see it, but I do not want to use it.” I sternly stated and continued to stare blankly into his helmet. My reason for being here was to not, by any means, explore my powers any further. All I had wanted was to figure out a way to convince Ben to come home. “I am not here to be your apprentice.”  
“I know that,” Kylo responded.”  
“But you really do not have a choice Ms. Skyes. I really suggest that you take this offer that we are giving you.” General Hux added as he stood up, “Whether you like it or not, you will be staying here. So might as well make this your new pastime.” I simply just stared at Hux and I already knew that he was right. But in the back of my mind, I still knew that I wasn’t going to be submissive to something like this.  
“Or would you like to go back to the prisoner cell and be restrained in that lovely steel chair again?”

Okay, well anything but that.

I sighed looking and looked to Kylo shaking my head. ‘I can’t believe that I’ll be going through with this.’ I thought. “Fine…I’ll train with Kylo Ren, but this doesn’t mean that I’m turning to the Dark Side. I’m only trying to save myself.” I responded with a determination seething determination.  
“Excellent,” General Hux gave a professional smile as he walked to the door, “I will have a guard get your quarters set up and to be sent to you. Good day Ms. Skyes, Ren.” And with that, Hux left leaving me and Kylo alone in the room.  
—————  
“I don’t understand you anymore,” I sighed as I sat on the table, “what is the matter with just killing me?”  
“You know well enough about why I won’t do such a thing to you Aria,” Kylo responded as he took off his mask, “And I don’t understand why you don’t thank me since I am sparing your life in the first place.”  
“You could’ve spared my life by just killing me,” I sighed as I sat on top of the cold table.  
“Things could be a lot more difficult and I could have you sent to Snoke.”   
Pondering about my predicament, thinking to be under Snoke’s supervision would cause me to go insane. So it probably wasn’t going to be that bad with Kylo.   
“…True,” I sighed in defeat, “But you already know that I am never going to the Dark Side. Why bother with this training? You will just be wasting your time.” Another silence filled the air as I looked down and had played with the ends of my robes. I could be grateful for him by having my life saved, but I wouldn’t think that threatening me to train powers that I didn’t want would be considered saving. Steps started coming close to me, but I didn’t want to look up.  
“Kira, look up,” Kylo ordered and I reluctantly obeyed. My eyes were greeted by a pair of deep brown eyes that weren’t so cold looking. The pang in my heart had come back as I stared at him in silence, not really knowing what else to say. “You have hope within you. There is anger, fear, anxiety, but there is also relief and care. I can see it all Kira, you know that by now.”  
“And so what? You know that I won’t turn over.”  
“And I know the reason why you won’t run.” I gulped, “I know the reasons why you’re here Aria. You know you can’t save me.”  
“Ben—“  
“You will no longer call me that name.” Kylo sternly interrupted , “You will call me Commander or Kylo outside of training, and can call me Master while we are training. But, you shall under no circumstance, call me Ben Solo, understood?”  
“But I—“  
“Is that understood?”   
I gulped as I looked at him, the anger would rise if I continued to question him any longer. “Yes…Commander.”  
“Good, let’s go to your quarters. We can discuss you schedule while we go there.” Kylo nodded to me as he walked away, but I still couldn’t move from my place. Kylo quickly noticed and turned his head to me. “Aria, come.”  
“Before we go,” I breathed, “Let me give you my last few words addressing you as Ben Solo, and my disobedience to save you before I can fake every meaningless command you give to me as Kylo Ren.” Kylo quickly turned 180 degrees to me and gave a confused look. He motioned for me to go on as he slowly walked back in front of me.  
“I…know that you don’t think that no one can save you now. You think that you are fully within the Dark Side and that it is your destiny. But that is where you are wrong, Ben,” I said as I slowly reached for him, making him flinch in surprise. “I can already tell and I already know it. You think that what I’m doing is going to be impossible. Your Uncle Luke couldn’t reach you and neither could your father, and you ended up killing him. So you wonder in confusion and frustration, what makes me so different from them? You wonder what is it that can make me so determined to save you, for me to want to be your light in your darkened heart. Deny it all you want, but you can feel it. The Force is there within you. As someone had once told me a while ago,” as I slowly rested my hand on his cold cheek, “The Force is something that binds all living things around us. The Force connects us all in every way whether or not we know it. So, I believe that this mission that I have accepted will succeed. I can still feel the small glimpse of good within you, and I know that it’s there. I will save you Ben Solo.”  
For a while, Kylo just stared down at me as he quietly took into what I had just said to him. The feeling of a calm nature surrounded me. I thought that I was able to hear my heart pounding in my chest as my eyes searched within Kylo’s to find the old Ben that I had known. He knew that I was desperate to bring him back, back home with me and to his mother, and just to be able to finish this war that had been created. Suddenly, I felt a leather hand brush against my own hand and clutched it as he began to speak. “You’re right,” he started, “I do feel it. I can’t escape it and I don’t have plan on how to do it. The reasons for why I choose to spare your life over my father and uncle are questionable. It truly makes me wonder what it is that makes me want to keep you alive instead of eliminating all these feelings all together. However,” I felt him pull my hand away from his cheek and just held it in the air, “your predictions of succeeding in this foolish mission will be wrong. It is already a failure. I will never be going to the Light Side. You can try everything that you can to make me do just that, but you will fail trying. And you will have to accept the fact that the good you see within me will slowly be swallowed up by the darkness that I had established when I decided to be under Supreme Leader Snoke.” His hand still held my own as he fully pulled me away from his cheek before letting go, letting my fingers brush against his and left my hand in mid-air.  
I wanted to reach for him to hold onto what was left of him despite the breaking that I was feeling in my heart, but he swiftly turned away from as he let his black cloak flutter against my fingertips. My heart dropped as he brought his helmet to his head and the soft hissing noise echoed within the room. Beckoning for me to follow him, I quickly obeyed as the storm trooper outside had lead me and him to my quarters where I would be stay from now on. Once we got to my quarters, the trooper left Kylo and I in front of my new “home”.   
“We will start training tomorrow after my shuttle has some modifications. I will come and get you when it is ready.” Kylo said.  
“Yes Commander…” I muttered softly.  
“With that, you are dismissed. I will leave you to your own business until we meet again tomorrow, Aria.” Just as Kylo was about to turn away again, I grabbed a piece of his cloak making him turn around again toward me. “A question Aria?”  
I nodded while slowly letting go of his cloak, “Yes…It’s just about something from back then. Just when Kylo Ren was created, when Ben Solo was lost, and when you killed the Jedi that were in training with Luke Skywalker.”  
“What of it?”   
“That day…you told me something that I know that I wouldn’t forget. You left me something before you spared my life at that time too.” I fiddled with my fingers as I braced myself, “Do you remember what it was?”  
Kylo turned to me and opened the door to my quarters and motioned for me to go inside, “I do not. And I do apologize for that.” And with that the door was closed and I could hear his boots growing faintly away from my room. The silent tears had begun to roll down my cheeks again as I felt my heart swell up from all the mixed emotions that I was experiencing. I clutched my chest as I walked to my bed and lied down on my back as I stared at the ceiling. The same feeling that I had felt ever since I had encountered him again began to take over, letting me know his true answer.

“Kylo Ren, you are one hell of a liar.” I said to myself before I was submerged into a deep sleep.

I really did loose him.


	4. Inconvenient Training

A knock came to my door the next day and I was greeted by a storm trooper who had my messenger bag full of my supplies. Obviously, it seemed like they were no longer of use since most of the snacks I had packed were of two things: tossed out or eaten up. The storm trooper instructed me to only put things that would benefit me for a few days when I go train today, according to Kylo Ren. I sighed in agreement as I started to pack my things for my first day of training(obviously not excited because who’d like to train with the Dark Side?). There wasn’t really a lot that I would be expecting from any of this training except for some new defense training for myself. As my mind wandered back to Kylo, I tried to figure out as many possible reasons for why they decided to have me alive. I really wasn’t anything like Rey who is probably training as a Jedi right now, let alone being anything close to a Jedi in the first place. As I checked my bag to see if there was anything else inside that they may have gotten rid of, my hand grazed against something small and cold. I confusingly picked up the small item and felt the relief come over me.  
“Thank goodness, I can’t believe that I actually almost forgot bout this little thing,” I said to myself as I pulled out the small silver pendant, “I don’t know what I would do if I forgot about this little thing.” I marveled at the small pendant and smiled at small engravings of my initials on the front. Memories flooded my head with the person who had given this to me and I could slowly feel my smile fade from my face. I gave the pendant a good squeeze before I slipped into a small pocket in my bag. 

A sudden knock interrupted my thoughts and the door to my quarters were opened, followed by Kylo Ren and General Hux. I looked at the both of them and just stared not knowing how exactly I should greet them.  
“Good morning Ms. Skyes,” Hux greeted, “have a nice sleep?”  
“I guess you could say that,” I replied.  
“Good,” Hux smiled slightly and looked between Hux and Kylo, “Well I will leave you two alone. You probably will be in discussion of you training.” Huh dismissed himself and I sat on the bed as I continued to pack some things for the first day of training.  
“Well Commander, what brings you to my quarters? Thinking that I might escape already?” I asked as I skimmed through all the belongings that I had in my bag.  
“Amusing as always,” Kylo commented, “I wanted to just tell you that my shuttle will be ready soon.”  
“Is that all?” I looked up at him. I knew that I was being really blunt with him, but I don’t think that any of these comments would really have any affect on him.  
“Are you still upset about last night?” Kylo spoke up that made me stop all together. “Is that why you are being like this?”  
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”  
“You don’t think that I know your feelings?” He asked as he took his helmet off and setting it on my table, “I can feel that you are still upset that I don’t remember that day. Your heart is hurting, and you are angry.”  
“That is not how I feel,” I sighed as I stood up, “You don’t understand anything about it. What makes you think that you can understand my feelings?” I walked past him and went to one of the drawers as I placed and replaced things that were inside my bag. I heard Kylo take some steps toward my direction, but I didn’t bother to turn around to acknowledge him.

“The Force is something that binds all living things around us. The Force connects us all in every way whether or not we know it.” I stopped what I was doing and just stood in my place. I looked down at the pendant inside my bag and pulled it out slowly, admiring the ageless silver reflecting against the light of my quarters. “As someone had once told me a while ago, right Aria?”  
“Yeah…Someone told me that too,” I turned around to reveal the pendant. “Do you remember this? At least as Ben Solo?”  
Kylo looked between me and the pendant as I admired the silver object. “I guess I can say that I do remember…that little thing. But what of it? It’s not important to me.” My face fell as I blankly stared at his emotionless face, as if he was like a robot himself.   
“Do you not remember that you were the one who gave this to me? You are the reason why it’s so important to me,” I exclaimed, “How could you ask me such a thing?”  
“If you haven’t noticed, I have done all I can to reject any of these feelings that would weaken me,” Kylo strictly responded as he peered in my face. I backed up slightly from him as he continued to walk towards me with a very intimidating demeanor. “To fully understand where my duties and my decisions lie, I cannot give into anything that will make me a weakling in front of my enemies.”  
“And I am your enemy?” I asked as I felt my back hit my dresser and Kylo towering over me like I was his shadow. “Do I really not mean anything to you anymore?” The silence between us was killing me within every second and I had begun to regret ever questioning him in the first place. But luckily I was saved by the knock on my door and Kylo pulled himself away from me before putting his helmet back on his head with one last quick glance in my direction. After he put on his helmet, he walked to the door and opened it with two storm troopers marching inside. I slowly let out the breath that I didn’t realize that I was holding and out my pendant into my bag again.  
“Commander,” one of the troopers responded, “the shuttle is ready for you and your apprentice. The selected group of guards you requested are also on stand by.”  
“Very well,” Kylo responded as he looked towards me, “We shall leave once my apprentice is done with her preparations. And I do not think that she is far from finishing. You are dismissed.”  
“Yes Commander.” The trooper left and Kylo followed after him and stood at the other side of the doorway, “I will be waiting at the shuttle. You will go there at once after you finishing packing, understood?” A shirt silence was in the air as I stared at him.   
“Yes, Commander.” I sighed deeply as the door closed.  
—————  
The trip wasn’t very long, but if you were in my position, you would be able to feel the tension. It wasn’t necessarily the type of trip that you should’ve been able to sleep easily on, but that wasn’t necessarily the case for me. I probably hd a nicer sleep on the shuttle rather than the soft bed in my quarters on the Finalizer. Kylo was the one who woke me up though and directed me towards the exit. As soon as we walked out of the shuttle, my eyes widened as I admired the green that was surrounding us. I knew that back at the Resistance’s base there was some green, but it wasn’t like this at all. It was almost too beautiful for me to remember my reason for being here in the first place.  
The forest was full of beautiful trees that stood tall and looked as if they could reach the clouds in the skies, and from a distance I could smell something that seemed like salty seawater from the was of us. Everything just seemed too good to be true that—  
“Aria, you’re in a daze.”

Oh, right…

Kylo was behind me with his arms crossed over his chest, patiently waiting for me to come back to my senses. Embarrassingly, I turned around to him while rubbing the back of my head.   
“I understand that you are in awe of this scenery, but I’m afraid that this scenery is not the reason why we are here.” Kylo said as a matter-of-factly and I quickly looked away from his robotic gaze.   
“I apologize…Master.” I sighed. Kylo walked closer to me as he stepped off from the steel platform and onto the mushy green grass. One of the storm troopers came down and walked over to the both of us and saluted to Kylo before speaking up, however this trooper looked a lot different from the other ones.  
“Commander, we have checked all perimeters and it doesn’t seem like there are any enemies or that many threats present here on this side of the forest.”   
“What are those threats that we have to avoid?" I asked. ‘And just when I thought that I had a small chance of dying,’   
“It shouldn't be anything too major, I think you can manage Ms. Skyes,” the storm trooper responded before heading back into the shuttle. I sighed looking around the trees again before looking back at Kylo.   
“So? What's the first thing that you're going to be teaching me?” I asked.  
“Eager are we?” I could hear the smirk in his voice and all I wanted to do was to smack it off with my lightsaber. "We won't be going into training immediately. We need to go look for a good place for shelter and near enough for us to spot water."  
“How long do you plan for us to be here?”   
“Long enough for you to have a central thinking space. I am teaching you the way Jedi have been taught since you refuse the Dark Side's way of learning.”  
“Oh great,” I said sarcastically. Kylo looked at me before he passed by me to walk in front of him, motioning me to follow him.   
“Once we find a place for you to meditate, I will teach you how to properly use you lightsaber and the Force back in the Finalizer. Hopefully you will be to be at some sort of peace before we physically start training you.” I followed Kylo to a section of the forest that had us completely isolated from the shuttle as he stopped in front of me. He turned around towards me as I absentmindedly walked into him, making me quickly move back from my little moment of contact as I muttered an apology. “Are there any final requests before we start anything?”  
I looked up at him to see if there were any hints of sarcasm coming from him, but it seemed like he was actually serious about this whole thing. “Well,” I started, “there’s only one real important one, but I was wondering if I have permission to request for this.” Kylo seemed to be very surprised by my sudden change of terms because his body language shifted when I said “permission”. He cleared his throat and some part of me wanted to smile.  
“Permission granted,” he replied, “What is your request?”  
Giving him a good look, I directly pointed to his head. “While you are training me, I was wondering if you can take your helmet off.”  
“And why would I even do such a thing?” He asked, seemingly that he did not want to leave without his precious black helmet.  
“Because I refuse to be taught by a man that hides behind a mask,” I said. It came out a little bit more harsh than I intended, so I quickly spoke again. “I just want to be able to feel comfortable around my Master if I’m going to be learning from him.” Hearing him sigh, there were footsteps behind me and General Hux had appeared out of the trees. I raised my eyebrow as he walked around and stopped by Kylo’s side.  
“My apologies Ren, Ms. Skyes,” hearing the smirk in his tone, “but I was just curious about where you had headed off to.”  
“Just a little pep talk,” I responded as I looked at Kylo, “Nothing to be too worried about, General.”  
“Well, I will be on my way soon back to the Finalizer. Is there anything that you need for me to have done before I take my leave?”  I looked back to Kylo when I heard the hissing from his helmet and his head full of hair exposed. “General,” Kylo responded as he handed him his helmet, “take this. I will be going light on this trip as a request for my apprentice.” Hux seemed just as surprised as I was as he carefully took he helmet away from Kylo’s hands. He looked back and forth between me and Kylo before nodding and left back to the other shuttle that he had come in. As I turned back to Kylo, he was already walking deeper into the forest and quickly I did my best to catch up with him.

After a while, we had managed to find an area that was not too far from all the things that we really needed to be at. We were able to set up a place to put a fire in a safe place and soon we were walking again. However, the further we walked to find an appropriate place to start meditating, it seemed to get a little more humid with every step we took. I was fine since my clothes weren’t really heavily layered, but Kylo on the other side had shed off his hood and cloak and left himself with his long-sleeved top and pants. Somehow I was able to fit both articles of clothing inside my bag, but that was probably because I was barely carrying in the first place. We had finally found a place that filled our ears with complete silence and the subtle movement of the wind brushing past our faces, and I had set my bag down near a tree. I opened the flap and had pulled out the small silver pendant that was given to me as gift and stared at it for a good minute before putting back into the flap to return to Kylo.  
He was already in a criss-crossed position on the ground and had motioned for me to sit in front of him. I willingly did so and just stared at him as he took off his gloves, revealing some healing scars from most likely his practices with his lightsaber. He set the gloves aside and looked at me.  
“The first thing we’re going to do is to get you to become one with the Force,” Kylo instructed.   
“By what? Meditating?” I asked.  
“The first steps are usually to see your mind at peace you are able to use the Force with a natural flow that will give you an advantage.” My eyes watched him intently breathing in and out calmly with a steady pattern that seemed to amaze me. I decided to follow him as I closed my own eyes and basked under the warm sunlight, although I didn’t know what I should be thinking about.  
“Clear your mind from all thoughts Aria,” Kylo responded with his eyes still closed, “those are your first steps.”  
Oh, well there was that.  
After hearing his instructions, I did my best to close off all the initial thoughts that I had in my mind before I sat down. The worrisome thoughts of General Organa and the others back at home and the mindset of being possibly killed slowly drifted away and I felt like I was just floating in space. For a few hours, the calm atmosphere between the both of us was very relaxing in a weird way and I was able to tell that Kylo was just as relaxed as I was. The feeling was sort of the same way I had felt when me and him first encountered each other, except this feeling was a lot more accepting and a lot more relieving than before. Before the sun started to set, we decided to head back to the camp to end our first day of training.  
—————  
For about nine days, there was a routine that we had established that basically involved physical strength training and mental training. I wasn’t going to complain about anything, but if I was probably going to at any moment. It wasn’t that the training was starting to be too much, it was just the fact that I barely have been able to talk to him this whole time we were alone together. Maybe there were a few times where I could talk to him about side topics, but they were never lasted long enough for him to move onto a nice jog in the forest. I knew that this was probably good for us, but I still wanted to catch up with him on certain things and to talk to him like a person, rather than some master that was forcing himself to teach me something I didn’t want to learn.  
We ended our tenth day of training since there was a light drizzle that was slowly going to start into a heavy rain. The forest was pretty humid so I don’t think I was going to enjoy being stuck with rain.  
“Since it’s really light right now, I think that it would be a good idea to start searching for something to keep us dry and near the others as soon as possible.” Kylo declared as he looked around for my bag.  
“Good idea,” I agreed as I spotted my bag by the tree that I had left it by before we went on our light run. I picked it up and slung it over my shoulder as I walked beside Kylo, hoping that this would finally be my chance to actually talk to him. “So where should we start looking?”  
“I saw a small cave somewhere around here while we were running. We’ll go there,” he bluntly stated and got quiet once again. The silence lingered in the air again and I was starting to get frustrated with myself.  
“Um,” I mumbled as I continued to walk behind him, “good run?”  
“Likewise.”  
“Geez, can’t you say anything else instead of being blunt with your words?”  
“What else do I need to say?”   
“I don’t know. Anything but silence is better than nothing to me.” I blurted out my sentence and this caused both me and him to stop in our tracks. Kylo turned around to look at me with a raised eyebrow, quickly making my eyes look the other way.  
“Well, one thing is for sure,” he stated, “you still like to talk a lot.” My cheeks flushed as gave me a sly smirk .  
“W-Well yeah,” I stuttered, “you know that better than anyone else.” The silence was slowly taking over again and it was slowly getting awkward by the minute as he continued to stare at me.   
“That’s true, it is something I can’t easily forget,” he turned around as he spoke, “but some things need to be forgotten.”  
It felt like he had just stabbed me with a dagger as he stated that with a seemingly heartless tone. Every word that he said there made me feel weak and I didn’t want to be believe that he wanted to forget everything. But then again, he was submerged with the Dark Side.

“So you would need to forget about me?” I asked absentmindedly. Kylo just stared at me as I kept my head down to avoid any eye contact with him. I could feel his unsteadiness with the question through the Force, and I knew how conflicted he felt about giving the answer that I knew that he didn’t want to say.  
“I need to,” he responded, “in order to—“  
“Stop lying,” I interrupted. A bewildered look on his face obviously showed that I had caught him off guard. “Why do you have to lie right in my face when I already know what you truthfully want to say.”  
“I’m not lying,” he retorted, “I have been trained to forget everything that was going to hold me back from—“  
“From what? Becoming as strong as your grandfather? What good will that get you, Kylo?”  
He sighed as he slowly started to walk towards me, making me back up with each step.  
“Why does it have to concern your well-being? Do you think that this was easy for me to do?” Kylo was glaring at me intently as he continued to walk towards me. I had a look of frustration but in reality I was actually really scared. “You don’t understand that these feelings that I harbor will only get me killed.”  
“So it’s okay if I have to be the one that’s killed just so you can harbor more power?”  
“Do you think that is what I want?!” I flinched at the sound of his raised voice and backed up into the large tree, Kylo trapping me with his arms and towering over me with his height. The anger was swelling within himself as his eyes narrowed down at me with a fiery gaze that was as heated as Mustafar. His breathing pattern was as uneven as a TIE fighter and I gasped in fear.  
“You should know by now to not test my patience Aria,” he lowly spoke, “I am like a thermal detonator. You should remember that.”  
I gulped and turned away from him to regain my proper breathing pattern as I heard him sigh softly.  
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, “I loose my temper very often when people start to talk about my abilities.” His hand started to slip away from the tree trunk as he continued to look at me, feeling his eyes soften up like a person who had kicked a small child. My breathing seemed to be in sync with his as he started to calm down, pushing his hair back slowly with his hand to wipe away the small droplets from the light drizzle of rain.  
“It’s fine…” I whispered, “I’m sorry that I had said those things to you.”  
As he walked away, I sat down on the damp ground to breathe out a sigh. Kylo was now out of sight and I was willing to give him the space that he probably needed away from me. I obviously knew that he was trying to prevent himself from strangling me since I’ve about his temper from the storm troopers before we set foot on the planet. He was still aiming for something that would make him the ultimate power, but I was able to tell that it was taking a toll on his mental and physical state; although his physical state wasn’t all that bad-looking.  
Leaning back against the tree, I didn’t realize that I had started to shed some tears until my vision started to blur. Sadness overwhelmed me as I stared up at the dull sky, hoping that the rain would actually come down so I can have it cover up the tears that were rolling down my cheeks. taking a deep breath, I pushed away the tears and grabbed my bag to search for my small silver pendant. When I found it, I picked it up from the small pouch and rubbed my thumb over it. As I continued to admire the small pendant, there was a subtle shaking from the ground that had brought my attention away from the small object. The shaking started to slowly get rougher and I quickly stood up from my place and stuffed my pendant into the bag. I was barely able to stand properly as I tried to reach down for my bag and swing it over my shoulder. Suddenly, the shaking abruptly came to a halt as Kylo came back from his cool down from earlier.   
“What was that?” I asked as I quickly walked over to him. Quickly, Kylo shushed me with a hard expression. I was confused by his actions and tried to ask again, but he only hushed me again and covered my mouth with one of his hands.  
“Be quiet,” he hushed, “let me figure out what it is, but you need to stay silent because it’s a threat.”  
“Threat?” I whispered with wide eyes. I was really hoping that it wouldn’t be the Resistance.   
“It’s not the Resistance,” he interrupted, “so don’t worry. At least this will let you know that I really do trust your word now.”  
“So you didn’t believe me before?” I raised my eyebrow at him and he sighed.   
Our conversation was quickly interrupted by the sound of an inhuman roar from the left of us, and what had emerged was a hideous creature with a large physique. The teeth and figure were as large as a Rancor and had looked like a mutation of Nexu and Wampa, but just as shaggy and more threatening. I froze in fear as I stared at the monster and almost had forgotten how to breathe. The monster had eyed us and began to roar again as it slowly stalked towards us.  
“What the hell is that?” I exclaimed as the monster started to come closer. A warm hand had quickly grabbed my own.  
“I’m not sure, but I don’t think I want to find out!” Kylo exclaimed as he dragged me from behind with his hand. I gasped as I ran behind him, my legs gain some feeling again, and I nearly screamed hearing the monster tailing us. I had looked back and lost my footing as I nearly tripped over myself and had nearly dragged down Kylo since he was still holding my hand. I got up quickly, but quickly panicked when I spotted something silver drop out of my pocket and scrambled to pick it up from the damp ground. The rain had started to come down and I was slowly getting soaked as I continued to search for my pendant. The roar nearly made my ears bleed as I looked up and saw the unidentified creature staring down at me. It’s clawed hand was raised and suddenly came down at me. I shut my eyes in for and was prepared to become diced into a million pieces, but the pain never came and I heard a little buzzing sound in front of me.  
As I opened my eyes, a ray of red was glowing and a tall black figure was in front of me as the monster’s paw was on the other side and bleeding profusely; the monster roaring in pain. Turning towards me, Kylo came into view and had grabbed my hand with his other hand the wasn’t holding his lightsaber, pulling me up from the ground and running off again.   
“Get your lightsaber out now,” Kylo yelled as we ran, “We might need to move forward with your training a lot more quickly than I had intended.” Without any question, I shoved the pendant into my robed pockets and fumbled with my lightsaber on the side of my belt. The roaring of the angered monster started come even faster towards us that it was like a big blur that we couldn’t really see coming; it didn’t even help that the rain was coming down harder and that it was getting even harder to run on the mud. I constantly looked behind even though Kylp kept on yelling for me to keep my eyes forward, but I couldn’t even hear him. I was brought back to my senses as I fell down onto the muddy dirt and a cried out as I scrapped my arm against something while I fell, blood starting to draw out from the wound. The monster was ready grab me and eat me for dinner as it swung its uninjured clawed paw down at me, grazing my leg and leaving open another bloody wound. I felt paralyzed as I stared up at the beast and watched it ready to slice me into a million pieces. I shut eyes ready to die on the spot but the pain didn’t come I felt like I was floating in air.  
Opening my eyes, I saw Kylo’s pained expression closely against my cheek as he held me close to his body. Looking over from my position, the monster had swung it’s claw and scraped Kylo enough to get some pain. I looked over to the other side to see that we were falling into a ditch and closed my eyes again for impact.   
—————  
It felt like a few hours until I was able to full gain consciousness from the hard fall and slowly felt the pain all over my body. The rain was still falling and I scanned my surroundings to see where I had ended up. Shifting to the side, I heard a groan beneath me. I quickly looked down, in shock, seeing Kylo and carefully got off of him. He looked like he was in a lot of pain, so I started to scout for a place for us to safely hide in case the beast came back to look for its meal.  
My eyes saw the small cave that Kylo was talking about earlier, so cautiously I slung his arm around my shoulder as we got out of the ditch and wobbled over to the cave for the night.


	5. Healing Hour

After finding the cave, Kylo had come back to his senses as I finished making the fire and had two canteens filled up to the brim with water. I watched as he slowly sat up from his position and I walked over to his side to help him sit up properly so he wouldn’t cause himself any more injuries. Staring at his wounds he started to pound the side where he was hit by the unknown creature that attacks, and more blood had started to appear as he hit it harder each time. My eyes widened and I quickly grabbed his hand to pul it away from his injured side. He looked at me with a hard expression but I didn’t care as he tried to pull it away from me to attempt the same thing again. However, I had an iron grip on him.  
“What are you doing?” I asked in bewilderment.  
“I’m fixing myself up,” he replied nonchalantly. There wasn’t any pain evident in his voice, but I knew that he would’ve had to at least feel something.  
“You…” I shook may head as I stared at him, “you are one crazy son of a Bantha.”   
“I should be the one saying that to you,” he rolled his eyes, “Where are we anyways?”  
“We’re inside the small cave that you were talking about. I was able to find it in time and start a fire to warm us up,” I reported as I comfortably criss-crossed, “It’s still raining, so we’re stuck here for the night.”  
“Better than going out there,” he replied.  
As I was about to say something, a sneeze escaped my nose as it echoed inside the small cave. It startled me, but Kylo didn’t seem to flinch a bit. Instead, he just quirked his eyebrow at me as he ruffled his soaked hair with his hand. I sniffled and bowed my head in an apologetic manner.  
“Are you cold,” he asked as I just shrugged.  
“A little,” I replied, “I mean, we were under the rain for about an eternity trying to get away from that furry furball of death.” I sighed as I wrapped my arms around myself and inched a little bit closer to the fire as I continued to speak to him. “Well, I guess we can always train indoors, right?”  
I heard a soft scoff from him which really gave him my full attention. “I think we can take a break from training for today,” he chuckled slightly and a smile started to form on my lips. 

This side of him was the one that I had missed the most. It brought me back to all the days he would come over with a new injury from training so hard with the other Jedi. Of course, I had hated to see him hurt, but it also reminded me that he was doing his best to get stronger. I frowned as I stared at the wounds on his sides, but my thoughts were interrupted again by my sneezing; but I was able to muffle it this time. Kylo looked at me again and I just shook my head as I got up from my spot and walked over to the other side of the fire where my bag was. I knew that, within the situation we were in right now, this was probably the last thing that I had wanted to do around him. But I, also, knew that I didn’t feel like dying from sickness.   
So cautiously, I started to take off my layers of robes and stripped myself down to the shorts and tunic that I had been wearing underneath. But just as I was about to take off the last layer of my robes, I was immediately stopped and I couldn’t move and I already knew why.  
“What are you doing, Kylo? Release me from your telekinesis so I can finish getting out of my wet clothes!” I exclaimed, obviously flushed in embarrassment since he immobilize me at the wrong time. But I could tell that he was just as embarrassed as I was at the moment because I could see his face turn into a bright pink from the corner of my eye.  
“I should be asking you that,” he stuttered, “put your clothes back on this instance!”  
“Hell no! I don’t want to get sick from not getting dry enough in time!” I exclaimed, “and if you don’t want to die either, you better take your tunic off at least!”  
“You are so crazy…”  
“Same to you,” I muttered and I sighed in relief as he let me become mobile again. “Thank you.” I finished unwrapping the last article of clothing that I was willing to take off and set it near the fire, next to my bag. I let my hair down and wrung the water out of it. On my back, it felt like someone was burning holes and I turned around to only see Kylo turn his head away from me. I smiled to myself as I saw how cute his reaction was and it took all I had to not point it out to him. I just shook my head and turned away from him again to continue wringing my hair.  
“You know,” I spoke up to break the awkward silence, “this isn’t the first time you’ve seen me like this Kylo.” I smiled to myself. “It was like that one time we fell in that one lake during training because—“  
“—we were trying to test out each other’s strength.” Kylo finished the sentence and my eyes slightly widened as I looked at him. He just lifted his head up at me, the faint pink was still evident on his cheeks. I, on the other hand, was completely flustered by his answer and I walked over to him. “Surprised?” he asked.  
“More or less,” I cleared my throat as I sat in front of him. I felt his eyes scanning my body from the top of my head to my lap and I was sure that I was completely flustered by his sudden actions. “Um..? Kylo, is there something wrong?” I watched as his eyes looked back up at me, and I really couldn’t tell what he was thinking because of how emotionless they looked.  
“Your wounds,” he stated, “they aren’t there anymore?” I tilted my head for a minute before a light bulb went off in my head.   
“Oh right,” I mentally face palmed, “I healed myself while you were still unconscious.” I showed him my arms that had deep wounds, revealing that there was a small scar from my wound. “It took a while since I haven’t done it in a while, so my wounds aren’t completely healed yet.”  
“You..can heal yourself?” He asked bewildered, “What did you use? When did you get supplies for first aid?”  
I scratched the side of my cheek and looked to the side of the cave before answering him, “It’s hard to explain. But I just thought about the wound as I pressed my hand against it and then there was this weird glow that came after.”  
“So you just thought about healing a specific spot and you were healed?”   
“Something like that. I did it sometimes back with the Resistance, but it was never something that I practiced.” I turned to look at Kylo whose mouth was slightly ajar as he stared at me.  
“Wh-what? Do I have an injury on my face too?”  
“You have Force healing. And you don’t even know it,” he scoffed in disbelief and I nearly pouted.   
“Well excuse me for not exploring powers that I didn’t want in the first place.” I huffed as I crossed my arms over my chest. Kylo was about to laugh, but instead let out a sneeze making me smirk in the inside.  
“I told you that you should take your clothes off. You’re going to sick Kylo.” He breathed out deeply and sighed as he reluctantly took his long-sleeved top and handed it to me to put by the fire and near my clothes.  
“I’m keeping my pants on,” he replied and I almost laughed out at the comment.  
“Well I wasn’t asking you to take all your clothes off.” I rolled my eyes as I took his long-sleeve, but my fav contorted in a strange way as I felt the places where he had been injured. Quickly, I wrung out the water and laid it next to my clothes and rushed back to him, grabbing one of the water canteens. My eyes widened, not only because his body was such an amazing feature to look at, but because of all the scars and wounds that he had all over himself. Some looked new, while some looked old and were still healing. The Dark Side must’ve had horrible nurses that didn’t know how to properly treat their Commander. I sat down next to him and examined each of the new wounds that were made from the attack earlier. There was a bad wound on his right side and three slash marks across from his back that looked like he should be dying, but his stature betrayed that way of thinking. There were some scratches her and there, but I was more concerned about his back.

“Um…you’re injured,” I said, not really sure how I should bring up his injures to him.  
“If you want to heal them, go ahead. I already knew that that was what you were thinking.” My face must’ve been 10 shades redder than it was earlier, and I didn’t know if that was even a possible factor. Kylo still had a good poker face on an there were no more signs of pink on his pale face anymore, so I guessed that it was my turn to get all flustered by another human’s input.  
“Okay,” I responded, “but it may take time since I don’t really know how to use this power yet.”  
“That is fine.” And with that, he had his back towards me and I marveled at his broad and muscular back that was tainted with scars. The infatuation slowly turned into a deep worry for him after seeing thousands of scars that seemed to cover up his whole back. And I knew that there were even more in the front. I grabbed one of the unused canteens of water and I placed my hands gently on one of the deep slashes and mentally concentrated on healing one of the three wounds on his poor back. Suddenly, a soft green glow emitted from my hands as it slowly started to close the wound. Silence had filled the air again, but this time was a lot different from all the other silent treatments that he’s given me.  
This one was more of a comfortable silence.  
Nothing really felt awkward or aggravating this time around, and I don’t think that I have ever felt more relieved in my life. I was able to feel through the Force that Kylo was more comfortable too. I wanted to start a conversation with him since this now became the perfect moment to do it, but the worry of each of his wounds getting infected kept me silent. It was sort of my fault in the first place anyways the more I thought about it. The “if I only” statements started to pop up ion my head, and I started to feel even more guilty than I have in a while. I nearly had him killed because of me, and because I still didn’t understand or refused to use the abilities that he had just taught me. Mentally, I was apologizing, and I really didn’t think that he would even respond to them because I was so foolish back there.  
“Do you finally understand my feelings Aria?” Kylo broke the silence and it had caught me off-guard. I didn’t even realize that I was almost down with his injures as two out of the three slashed were fully closed and looked as if there was’t a wound there in the first place.   
“U-uh, wait huh?” I stuttered, obviously confused by the question.  
“Remember how I said that I needed to get rid of these feelings so I wouldn’t get myself killed?” I nodded, even though he wasn’t looking, but he could feel that I did since he continued. “I may have gotten rid of some feelings…but I am still conflicted and confused as others have seen me. I hope that you can understand that.” My heart started to thump loudly against my chest, an it was as if you could definitely hear it if the rain wasn’t so loud.  
“So…you—“  
“I haven’t…completely let go of the care I have for you since I basically almost died saving you.”  
It almost seemed as if he was bragging, and I wanted to smack him behind the head, but I knew that really wouldn’t do anything in the first place. So I just mentally gave him my thanks as I finished his back, making it looks good as healthier than before.

“Well there you go,” I said while I got up again, “I’m going to get one of your dry clothes and have you lay on that so I can finish your side.” Walking over to the bag, I quickly grabbed his hoodie and laid it down for him so he could lay down on it. I figured that it would be easier for me to work on his side if he was comfortable enough. He was a commander after all, so usually people of high status should get special treatment…right? It took a while for me to concentrate at his side without getting extremely flustered over his chest and well-defined washboard for abs. I remembered that he was a lot more skinnier back then and that I was always so worried that he would break himself if he tried to work out on his physique. But that was back then, and this was now. I could mentally feel him smirking at me because my mind was probably all over the place trying to look at his wound and not at his exposed front upper body.   
However, my concentration was able to kick back into serious mode as I continued to heal him with another undiscovered power of mine. The small little tie that I had used to tie my hair up into a ponytail had snapped when I let my hair down earlier, so I was left helplessly pushing strands of hair away from my face as I tried my best to finish the job since Kylo was probably getting annoyed that I constantly kept on pushing my hair away. He did take notice, and suddenly he reached up past my check and behind my ear as he tucked a stray strand with his right hand. His hand was resting against my cheek and it was strangely warm as it was contrasted against my cold and still slightly damp cheek. I was so caught-off guard by his actions that I almost stopped healing him, but his left hand kept my hands in place to prevent them from stopping the healing action that I was performing. If I wasn’t already flustered and embarrassed enough by his sudden actions, this would definitely just be something else. It didn’t even help that he still had his poker face plastered on his face.  
“Um,” I panicked, “Thank you…?”  
“It was bothering you and I needed you to finish healing me as fast as you could.” Kylo replied and I became even more flustered. I quickly glued my eyes away from his deep brown ones before I should get distracted again and completely forget to complete his healing process. Luckily, it didn’t last any longer and his side was completely healed. I lifted my head slightly, but it was slightly tugged downwards since Kylo was still holding onto it. I stared at him in surprise as I watched him get up from his position. His face looked completely dry now and his touch seemed a lot hotter than the fire during beside us. The more I stared at him, the more I realized how much of Ben Solo was still left in him; even though he will deny it right off the bat. His left hand was still on top of my hands that I used for healing as they sat on top of my thighs.   
“You do realize that you look like you’re not wearing anything under your tunic right?” he questioned and it made me even more embarrassed.  
“W-well,” I stuttered, “you know that I am wearing shorts under so..y-you shouldn’t say stuff like that.” He hummed in agreement as he just continued to stare at me. This was definitely not a good situation for me because I didn’t understand why he was looking at me like this. He warm hand contrasting against my cold skin made me shiver as he fully pressed the palm of his hand onto my cheek. Tilting my hand up, I stared even more intently into his deep brown orbs, feeling my heart beat rapidly against my chest.  
“You’re shivering,” he said, “Are you really that cold, even though you were by the first this whole time?”  
I shrugged, not breaking the eye contact, “I guess so…I was practically soaked from head to toe.”  
Another silence filled the air, but there was a little bit of tension as we just continued to stare at each other. His face inched a little closer into mine, and I could feel his steady breathing contrasting against my uneven pattern. His lips were about two inches away from mine and our noses were lightly touching.

“Do you want me to warm you up?” he asked as I stared back and forth between his lips and his eyes. 

The wavering gaze of mine was making me loose all sense of control and the feeling was making me dizzy. I felt him move half an inch closer to my face before I slowly closed my eyes and just waited for whatever he was planning to do, to just happen already. 

 

But the warmth slowly disappeared as I opened my eyes, watching Kylo’s hand leave my cheek and my hands, pulling away from me to give me back some space. Part of me was disappointed that nothing happened any further, but the other part of me felt so relieved. Kylo slowly got up and walked over to my bag as he left me there in the same position I was in when I was healing him. I was so confused on whether or not he was really going to kiss me, but quickly slapped my cheeks when I thought about the possibility if it did happen. But it wasn’t like this was the first time that he had kissed me. Suddenly, something large and warm was dropped over my head and my eyes widened when I recognized the scent on the fabric that was surrounding me. Kylo sat back down on his hood and watched me adjust to his cloak so it would fully wrap around me. I looked back at him and saw some goosebumps forming along his olive skin, but still keeping that same poker face. I knew that he was cold, but I knew that he wasn’t going to tell me that.  
As I sat beside him, I unwrapped part of the cloak from my body and placed it on him. He looked at me with a cocked eyebrow and looked back and forth between me and the piece of fabric. I motioned it to him for him to take it as I laid down on the side of him closest to the fire.  
“I’m not cold,” he responded.  
“Your skin says otherwise,” I replied back. “This is just my way of saying…thank you, okay? I can’t have my master dying on me in the middle of the night, right?”  
Reluctantly, Kylo took the part of the cloak and draped the top part of his body and turned over with his back to my back. As sleep took over me, I faintly heard him muttering behind me, but I wasn’t really so sure of what he was actually saying.

But it sounded like a thank you.  
—————  
Voices were ringing through my head as I tossed and turned in my position and I didn’t know the reason why. Unfamiliar and familiar voices were screaming in my ears as a image of a person began to come into view from the submerged darkness. My breathing hitched when I saw a pair of eyes that had looked like my own and a red glow of a lightsaber come towards me. And suddenly, a scream for name that sounded a lot like a male’s voice ended the nightmare.  
—————  
My eyes flew wide open as I abruptly sat up from my position, hearing my heart pounding loudly against my chest as I struggled to breathe. I clutched my chest and curled into a ball as I stayed next to Kylo’s side. I was going to wake him up, but it turned out that he wasn’t there but was standing at the entrance of the cave, holding two canteen bottles filled to the brim with water. As he stalked towards me and knelt down by my side silently before speaking to me.  
“What happened?” Kylo asked. “I heard you screaming from something.”  
“ I-I don’t know,” I stuttered. “It was some weird…dream or something.”  
Kylo studied my face as he got into a more comfortable position as he continued to ask me questions. “A Jedi vision most likely. What did you see?”  
“I don’t know…there was just voices calling to me and then someone’s face appeared. I just couldn’t tell who.” I sighed as I turned to him, “What does it mean?” My whole body was shivering in the warm cave as I recalled all the screaming and the unfamiliar faces. Kylo stared at my face and sighed before he gave his explanation.   
“The vision, is something that an tell your future.” Kylo reached from behind and handed me one of the canteen bottles, motioning for me to quickly take it. “Here, drink this.” I looked at the canteen before taking it slowly from his hand. His eyes emotionlessly watched me drinking the canteen of water halfway before he stood up again and looked down at me.  
“Get ready soon,” he ordered, “we will be going back to the shuttle soon, understood?” I watched him turn around and walk out of the cave as I stood up myself, holding the half-empty canteen.  
“Uh..yes, Master.” I responded before walking over to my bag to put my clothes back on.

As I walked outside, I spotted Kylo leaning against the tree with his arms crossed over his chest. I adjusted the strap of the bag on my shoulder and began to walk in Kylo’s direction so we could make it back to the shuttle. Looking around the area, I tried to look and see if the beast may have come back to finish what it started so I could be ready to make a run for it. As I mindlessly searched around, I bumped into Kylo’s chest and stared up at him as he still kept his posture.  
“There’s nothing around anymore,” Kylo stated as unfolded his arms. “It seems that that beast comes out towards the end of the day. So it would be best to go back to the ship right now.”   
“Oh…ah, yes, Master.” I responded as Kylo turned around swiftly and started to walk in towards the direction of the shuttle and the other men were. It was a very quiet trip back, and even though it was like this for the past 10 days, there was something about the silence that I didn’t like. The feeling of avoidance seemed to be poking at my side since Kylo was extra quiet today. He never really was the type of guy to talk or interact with anyone in the first place, but I was always able to get something out of him at some point. I stared at his back as we continued to maneuver our way through the forest to meet up with the others, marveling at how broad they really were. Unconsciously my hand reached up to touch his shoulder, but he quickly turned around and grabbed my hand, stopping me in my place as he looked at me with the same intimidating emotionless expression.  
“What are you doing?” He asked, as his grip on my wrist slightly tightened.  
“I-I—sorry,” I replied. “I wasn’t thinking…” Slowly, his grip on my hand released as he still stared into my eyes. “But, I was also concerned about your injuries. Are you okay now?”  
“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt anymore.” He said bluntly and turned around again. I trailed behind him, but he was starting to walk faster.   
“Why are you walking so fast?”  
“This is how I normally walk.”  
“You stalk walk, you don’t fast walk. But slow down, I can’t keep up.”  
“Then you should try to keep up.” He quickly glanced at me as I tried to keep up with his pace. I rolled my eyes as I tried to walk faster.  
“It’s really weird you know,” I thought out loud, “you seem to be ignoring me again.”  
“And you shouldn’t be bothered by that by now.”  
I sighed deeply and stopped walking, making him turn around immediately.  
“We really don’t have time for this Aria.”  
“Okay, then jI’ll make time. Just tell me why you’re being like this again.”  
“Like what?”  
“Like this,” I exclaimed as I motioned my arms up and down towards his figure.  
“Can you be more specific?”  
“Well for one thing, you were concerned about me last night, practically almost kissed me while I was healing you, and now you’re just plainly ignoring my presence.”  
“And?” I felt my blood starting to boil again.  
“AND it is annoying! I don’t understand why you are being so different! It’s like you have two different personalities in one body and I have treat you differently in two different ways!” I deeply exhaled as I looked at him before he took a step towards me.  
“I’m sorry you feel that way, but we need to forget that last night never happened.” I raised an eyebrow and put my hand on my hip.   
“What?”  
“We need to forget that little scene I had created.” Kylo looked at me with his robot-like straight face, but in his eyes there was a different story.  
“You don’t mean that.” I replied as I stared back at him with a determined face.  
“Yes I do.”  
I chuckled as I sighed deeply. “No you don’t. Kylo, you know that I know you, and I can see right through that emotionless facade you have. What do you have to loose just by acknowledging it?” He looked away from me as if he was trying to gather all his thoughts together in order to make his answer and quick and blunt as possible. This was typical him, and I couldn’t really see through on why he insisted on not recognizing his actions.Before he could respond, a male voice had called out to the both of us from afar. www both faced the same way in the direction of the voice and spotted a scruffy-looking male pop out for the trees with a few storm troopers following behind.  
“Kurtis?” I said out loud.  
“Hey!” Kurtis exclaimed as he ran to the both me and Kylo. He stopped in front of Kylo, giving a small bow, surprised to see him without his helmet. One of the storm troopers walked over to Kylo and whispered something in his that was inaudible, and without a word walked away with the storm trooper. My eyes were glued to Kylo’s back as he left and I didn’t even notice Kurtis talking to me.  
“What are you doing here?” I asked.  
“Well, Commander usually reports back to us when it’s nighttime. He didn’t come last nigh, the rain was coming down so hard, and then we heard some roaring in the direction you guys went. So we were pretty worried,” Kurtis explained as he looked at me. “Are you hurt anywhere?”  
I shook my head with a smile. “I’m fine. Commander Ren is fine as well.”  
“I’m not that worried about the Commander,” Kurtis chuckled, “He handles himself pretty well.”  
‘Well, obviously that wasn’t the case last night,’ I thought. “That’s true. He really saved my skin back there.”  
“Yeah, the Commander is pretty great even though he doesn’t seem like it.” Kurtis smiled as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “Well, we should get back to the ship. The General needs you and Commander return asap.”  
“Will do Kurtis sir,” I saluted to him, making him laugh in amusement.

There was something about that laugh that had caught my attention, and there was a feeling that had suddenly risen from within myself. I didn’t know what it was, so I just pushed it to the side as I talked to Kurtis on our way back to the shuttle.


End file.
